


Goodnight, Moon

by flippyspoon



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Fluff, Insomnia, M/M, Romance, very light angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:53:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26602510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flippyspoon/pseuds/flippyspoon
Summary: ANOTHER Billy and Steve can't sleep fic but can we really ever have enough lol?
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Comments: 32
Kudos: 204
Collections: harringrove for BLM





	Goodnight, Moon

“Steve?” Robin snapped her fingers in front of Steve’s face. He heard her voice like an echo through fog and jerked, coming back to himself. “Hello. Steve? Dingus? Are you in there, Space Cadet Harrington?”

“Uh. Yeah yeah.” He had been leaning so far over the counter at Family Video, he was practically lying on top of it as he stared blankly out at the parking lot. He stood up straight. “Um. Uh huh.”

“Still can’t sleep?” Robin patted his shoulder. “Do you want a Mountain Dew?”

“Yeah.” Steve rubbed his sore eyes. He was not sure of the last time he had enjoyed even a couple of hours of sleep, much less a full night. He was pretty sure the walls were starting to move around him. His bones ached and he felt a little sick. “I can’t wait to feel both exhausted and wired at the same time. Everyone loves that.”

“Only a couple hours to go,” Robin said, stacking ten copies of _Fast Times_. “Then you can go home.”

“Go home and lie in bed and stare at the ceiling,” he said glumly. He slinked off to the break room to get himself the Mountain Dew.

Why he couldn’t sleep, he wasn’t sure. He’d used to have nightmares about monsters and the Upside Down, even aggressive Soviets a few times. But it was nothing that regularly bothered him. His body simply refused to sleep and the deprivation was really starting to fuck with him.

Turning a corner into the break room, he thought he saw a shadow move and he jerked. But it was nothing.

“Gonna lose my goddamn mind,” he said to himself.

The two remaining hours of his work day felt infinite.

That night, Steve went home and ate pizza for dinner and then lay in bed with his eyes closed. He tried to relax. He counted sheep and then he counted demodogs. He watched some _Night Court_ reruns. He felt bleary and a little insane. He finally gave up the ghost at two in the morning, grabbing his bat, a flashlight, and a hooded sweatshirt before slipping on his Nikes and heading into the woods.

Following the closing of the Gate, Steve had experienced some anxiety that sent him hunting for monsters in the woods that he never found. But even the prospect of it was such an adrenaline rush that he slept like a baby once he came home after one of those escapades. Even after never finding anything to kill.

So Steve took his Walkman and his nail bat, and went into the woods. It was spring in Hawkins, and a bit chilly at night. Steve shivered and zipped his sweatshirt.

Duran Duran blasted in his ears for a few minutes, but the eeriness of the dark woods at night made him worry something might take him by surprise and he took out his headphones.

He walked for a half hour, his ears perked up and his heart pounding, before he heard the snap of twigs behind him.

Probably a deer, he thought. He froze where he was, barely breathing But the footfall he heard next sounded heavier and closer. He heard the puff of human sounding breath.

Blessedly, he didn’t hear the screech of a demogorgon.

Just a human… Maybe a serial killer human. But still a human. 

“Who’s out there?” He forced himself to sound bold and unafraid. His voice did not shake. “Hey! Who’s out there?” He whipped around, wielding his bat.

“It’s me?” The voice was tentative. A year ago, Steve would never have guessed it came from Billy Hargrove. And even now as Billy crept out from the shadows, hunched over, his hands shoved in his pockets and a hood low over his eyes, it still took Steve a second to acclimate to this new version of Billy. He talked to Billy all the time now. But the guy was by turns much more open and vulnerable than he’d used to be and also very skittish. Steve had invited him to a barbecue at Robin’s house once and Billy had practically vanished on the spot, stuttering as he turned and walked away. Steve hadn’t seen him for three days after that. But then again, that was a few months ago. And now they were in the dark and scary woods and Billy was walking toward Steve, who held a nail bat at his shoulder. Maybe that was a good sign. 

“Hargrove,” Steve said flatly. He lowered his flashlight. “Wow. What’re you doin’ out here?”

“I can’t sleep,” Billy said. “I go walking when I can’t sleep.”

Steve approached, carefully stepping through the pine needles and leaves. Slowly. He didn’t want to spook Billy. “It doesn’t freak you out?”

“I guess not.” He shrugged. “What about you? You gonna take out some bears or somethin’?” He nodded at the bat.

“Oh.” Steve lowered the bat and shrugged, sheepish. “I go hunting for monsters that, hopefully, aren’t there. Sometimes I can sleep after that. But I don’t know if it will still work. I can’t sleep for anything these days.”

“Hmm.” Billy spread his arms and said, “Well, you found a monster anyway.”

“You’re not a monster,” Steve said with a snort. It was hard to take the notion seriously. Not when Billy spent his days shelving books at the library and took free casseroles from Mrs. Henderson with a shy smile. Hardly a monster.

Steve sighed heavily and, spotting a lush patch of grass near a big tree, he dropped his bat and sat down, leaning up against it as he flicked off his flashlight. “Take a load off, yeah?”

Steve fully expected Billy to duck his head and mutter an excuse before skittering back into the woods, and maybe it was because he was just as exhausted as Steve, but instead Billy heaved a sigh and sat down right next to him. They both shifted around to make themselves more comfortable, eventually folding up their legs and resting their wrists on their knees.

“So…how have you been?” Steve said, just to fill the quiet.

“Not too bad except for the bullshit insomnia,” Billy said. He picked at the scant grass beneath them. He found a twig of pine needles and the moonlight was just bright enough that Steve could make out the way his thick fingers twiddled with it. “The library gig is kinda cool. I like books.”

Steve nodded and settled in a little closer. “What do you like to read about?”

* * *

Steve was too cold, but his front was warm and snuggled up against a warm and solid body. He hummed happily and hugged the body tighter, feeling it rumble pleasantly against his chest. For a few minutes, he basked in the fuzzy heaven between dreams and waking and then the morning sun narrowed in on his forehead and the shriek of a bird made him jerk awake just as the comfy, solid mass pulled away and Billy Hargrove rolled over to face him, blinking at him sleepily.

“Hmph. Harrington?” Billy sat up and cleared his throat. His hair was a bird’s nest of pine needles as he rolled his neck.

Steve thought he looked pretty cute.

He coughed, blushing at the thought and sat up. His muscles were a little sore from sleeping on the ground, yet he felt...rested. For the first time in probably months.

“Guess we fell asleep,” Steve said. His voice came out low and husky and Billy’s pale blue eyes fixed on him. “What time is it…?” He shook his hands out and glanced at his watch. “Whoa. It’s eleven! We really slept.”

“Goddammit, I’m so late.” Billy jumped to his feet. Steve’s shift at the video store started later that afternoon and he chewed his lip watching Billy walk backwards as he tossed a wave at him. He wished they could go have some breakfast or something. He felt like there was something unfinished between them.

Apparently not for Billy who casually said, “See ya, Harrington!” Before he turned and ran.

* * *

 _I was spooning Billy Hargrove and it was awesome_.

It was pretty much the only thought in Steve’s head for the next three days. They were three days during which he at first felt light and cheerful and a little moony thinking about waking up wrapped around Billy Hargrove, of all people, and also grateful that his insomnia had apparently passed.

Except that it hadn’t.

Three days later, he was as tired as he had been before his spooning session with Billy in the woods.

“I’m gonna die, Robin,” he mumbled. He slumped over the counter, staring blearily out the front windows at the mostly empty parking lot. “I’m gonna lose my mind and they’ll find me wandering naked through Loch Nora.”

“Well, I’m sure that will make a lot of people happy,” Robin said, as she slipped another tape into the rewinding machine.

Steve was about to say something snarky in response to that, but just then Billy Hargrove walked in and he was not prepared for the way his mouth reflexively turned up into a smile.

They’d talked a lot before they’d fallen asleep. Or rather, Steve asked Billy question after question about books and his job and what he thought about _Miami Vice_ … He’d found himself endlessly curious about Billy Hargrove who looked just as tired as he was.

“Harrington.” Billy nodded. “We talk for a sec?”

“Sure.” Steve vaulted over the counter just to show off and knew Robin was rolling her eyes behind him. “Just be a second,” he said to Robin.

He didn’t know why he gently took Billy’s elbow as he led him into a remote corner of the store where they could talk privately, but he noticed that Billy looked right at him when he did it and that his eyelashes did a little fluttery thing that just about unraveled Steve.

“I can’t sleep.” Billy leaned against the wall of sci-fi videos and crossed his arms. He stared at Steve as if Steve could do something about his insomnia. 

“Me either.” Steve shrugged.

“I haven’t slept since the woods…”

Steve blushed so fast and so deeply he turned his head away, hoping Billy wouldn’t notice. “Yeah. Me either. That was...that was a good sleep.”

“Yeah.”

Steve said, “It was probably because…”

_Because we were holding each other._

“The woods,” Billy said, and his mouth became a straight line. “Probably just, ya know, the woods.”

Billy didn’t bother to explain his logic and Steve just nodded along, half relieved and half devastated.

“The woods.” He nodded and the back of his neck felt suddenly itchy. He raised a shoulder as if to scratch at it and winced. He felt like a malfunctioning robot. “The woods, right. I guess I’ll try that again.”

“Yeah.” Billy stared at him and frowned. “Okay. I was just… that was all. I gotta go.”

He was gone in a flash and Steve blinked at the spot where he had just stood.

“Damn.”

* * *

That very night, Steve went out to the woods again and wished Billy was with him.

He didn’t wait until two in the morning this time. He went out at eleven, once his parents were in bed. 

Steve knew the woods around Hawkins like the back of his hand. It didn’t take him long to find the spot where he had slept with Billy three nights before. 

_Slept with Billy_. The thought turned him on.

This time he’d brought a sleeping bag with him and a lantern instead of a flashlight. He unfurled his sleeping bag and took off his shoes before climbing inside and turning off the lantern.

He rolled over, intent on sleep.

Like always, his brain had other ideas.

But this time they were about Billy.

He imagined Billy showing up, appearing in the woods because he just had to find Steve. He imagined that they’d look at each other and just _know_ and Steve would sit up and unzip his bag and Billy would silently crawl into the bag with him (they’d never fit inside it together but this was fantasy). They’d be all pressed up against each other and they’d try to restrain themselves at first, but they’d both be hard as hell and all once they’d shove their hands down each other’s jeans and start jerking each other off as their mouths smashed together-

“Harrington?”

Steve gasped and yanked his hand out of his jeans, his cock painfully hard. 

Billy appeared from around a tree, shining his flashlight in Steve’s eyes.

Steve said, “Ugh. I mean. Hey. Uh…”

“I thought I might find you here,” Billy said, casual and ignorant of the massive hard-on in the sleeping bag as he strode over and sat down next to Steve. “Oh, you got a sleeping bag. Good idea, I guess. I don’t have one.”

“Sooo… um, you were gonna…” Steve licked his lips, attempting to sound like a coherent and not incredibly turned on person. “Um. Sleep...here?”

“Figured it worked last time.” Billy had turned off his flashlight and he was pressed up against Steve, his voice soft in Steve’s ear. “Nothing else is working, right?”

“Yeah.” Steve breathed the word. “Me either.”

There was no way Steve could not offer to somehow share the sleeping bag without it seeming awkward at best and mean at worst. 

In a flurry of jerky motions, he unzipped the bag while twisting away, though it was dark enough that Billy probably wouldn’t have seen the massive erection he was hiding. His hands shook as he moved and spread the bag out on the ground before laying down on top of it and turning away from Billy, wincing as he pulled his knees up to his chest.

“This works,” he said flatly. “Right?”

“Sure. Thanks.” Billy lay down beside him. Steve felt the puff of Billy’s breath on the back of his neck and had to close his eyes.

Eventually, his erection flagged and he managed to fall asleep. 

But his dreams were something else.

“Hey, Steve?” 

Steve thought he was still dreaming because Billy never called him by his first name. But when he finally managed to open his eyes, frowning when he realized Billy was not curled up in his arms like he had been all night, he sat up, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the morning light.

“Hmm?” He rubbed his face, forcing himself into wakefulness and couldn’t help but smile, he felt so good again. All he needed was a cup of coffee. His mouth watered thinking of it. He wondered if Billy would be up for coffee and donuts...

Billy looked nervous, drumming his fingers on his knee. He had an edgy almost mad dog look in his eye that reminded Steve of the old Billy. 

It made Steve nervous and aroused at the same time.

But increasingly, everything about Billy was arousing.

“I don’t think it’s the woods,” Billy said, so low that Steve could barely make him out. “I think it’s… It’s easier sleeping with you- I mean next, _next_ to you. So I’ll come over tonight and sleep with you at your place tonight. Okay, bye.”

Steve opened his mouth, unsure of what words he planned to say, but Billy was already on his feet and as stealthily as a Ninja, he was gone into the dark, leaving Steve with a pounding heart.

“Okay,” Steve said to the trees. “See ya.”

* * *

Steve’s heart didn’t really stop thundering for the rest of the day.

Billy was going to come over and sleep with him.

He worked a short five hour shift at Family Video and counted seven times that he opened his mouth to tell Robin that Billy Hargrove was coming over to sleep in his bed, but instead the information stayed secret, locked in his mouth and producing sparks in his blood.

Steve rushed home after work and almost forgot to eat dinner, he was so busy tidying up his room. He changed his sheets and his pillow cases before remaking his bed more neatly than usual. He aired out the room and straightened his little bookcase with its paltry collection of books (mostly about sports) in case Billy took a look at it. By then it was ten. Steve ate leftover spaghetti standing up in the kitchen and then raced upstairs to brush his teeth and do his hair.

At eleven he lay down on his bed, shirtless in pajama pants and equal parts terrified and impatient when he realized they had not agreed upon a time.

Billy showed up at a quarter to midnight.

Steve’s parents were long asleep and at the sound of the Camaro driving up and then the doorbell chiming through the house, Steve bolted out of bed, though his parents were historically heavy sleepers.

At the front door, Steve checked his hair in the little mirror next to the coat rack and took a deep breath.

He threw open the door and this time his heart didn’t thunder, it softened.

Billy looked _adorable_.

He wore a faded old Black Sabbath t-shirt with pajama pants, and a hooded sweatshirt unzipped over it, a toothbrush clutched in his hand. 

Billy Hargrove in his _jammies_.

His hair looked fluffier than usual.

“Hey.” Billy cleared his throat and Steve didn’t miss the way his gaze traveled down Steve’s body. “Um.”

“Come on in,” Steve said, standing back. He started to lead him up stairs and paused at the banister. “Oh. Do you need a glass of water or-”

“Nah.” Billy shrugged. “I’m good.”

Billy brushed his teeth upstairs and then Steve brushed his teeth for a second time that night just because he didn’t want Billy to think his teeth weren’t brushed, but didn’t think of mentioning it.

They were quiet as they crawled under the covers and Steve couldn’t help but notice that he reflexively slept on the side nearest the door and Billy went around to the side nearest the window as if they already had regular sides of the bed and slept together every night.

They squirmed under the covers, getting comfortable, and eventually lay still next to each other on their backs, the comforter and sheet pulled up around their armpits. 

Steve said, “Are you going right to sleep?”

“I dunno,” Billy muttered. “Probably not.”

“Okay.”

They were quiet again and then Billy said, “Will you turn over?”

Steve rolled over to look at him and Billy said, “No no. The other way.”

Steve frowned and rolled over the other way, facing away from Billy. He couldn’t contain his gasp of surprise when Billy spooned up behind him, wrapping an arm around Steve and clasping their hands together against Steve’s chest.

“Is this cool?” Billy said.

“Oh,” Steve said. “Yeah, that’s...that’s good.”

“It’s kinda easier to talk?” Billy said. “Like this. But I wanted to do it.”

Steve felt Billy’s breath on his neck and closed his eyes. “Did you want to talk about something um…” Steve licked his lips. It all had to be a dream, he thought. Except it wasn’t totally out of line with the way Billy was lately, quieter and more open and, Steve guessed, maybe more open to show how he felt about people without the bravado. “Something in particular?”

“I dunno.” Billy chuckled into Steve’s hair.

“Um. Okay...I have a question.” Steve felt the urge to whisper even though the door was shut and his parents’ room was way down the hall. 

“Shoot,” Billy said and when he squeezed Steve a little tighter, Steve sighed. 

“Do you remember being dead?” Steve said and winced as soon as he heard himself, but Billy’s laughter rumbled warmly in his ear. “Sorry, man. That didn’t sound so weird in my head.”

“Nah. S’okay.” Billy took a deep breath behind him. “Well. I wasn’t really dead. It was sort of like a coma. My body was still alive? At the military hospital with Owens? But my mind was in that black place-”

“The Void,” Steve whispered. “That’s what El calls it.”

“Right. Yeah. And I was alone. And I thought I would be there forever. But the Shadow, the Mind Flayer thing, it wasn’t there at least. It was lonely though. Loneliest place ever, Harrington. I’m tellin’ ya. That’s saying something for me. I thought I’d be stuck there forever alone.”

Steve squeezed his hand and thanked whatever fates had brought Billy back, not just warm and alive but in some way, reborn.

“How’d you get out?” Steve said. 

“I saw people there,” Billy said. “People who couldn’t see me. Not like El does. But like...memories. Saw my mom and Max…”

“And seeing them brought you back?” Steve said.

“No.” Billy’s mouth brushed Steve’s skin and on impulse, Steve raised Billy’s hand to his own lips and kissed his knuckles and heard the sharp intake of Billy’s breath. “Um… I knew I’d never find my mom if I came back. Dunno if I’d want to. I knew Max’d be alright without me.”

“So…?”

“I saw you,” Billy said, so soft in the dark. “I saw you playing basketball. Sitting at your desk at school, daydreaming. Scooping ice cream. It was you. I came back for you. Just to see how you were doing. Just to see you for real even one last time. That’s why I came back.”

Steve couldn’t breathe. He kissed Billy’s knuckles again and then moved Billy’s hand to press against his chest so he would feel how his heart was beating, how his skin was so hot as Billy casually whispered his earth shattering revelations.

“Me?” Steve breathed. “Why me?”

“‘Cause it was always you, Harrington,” Billy said. “Since Day One. It was always ever you. I just didn’t know how to deal with it.”

“So…” Steve could hardly speak. His eyes swam and his voice cracked when he spoke, a lump stuck in his throat. “So you used to be in love with me?”

“No, baby,” Billy whispered. “I’m still crazy about you.”

Steve rolled over to face Billy in the dark and a draft moved the curtain so that moonlight shone on his face and Steve saw that despite how confident Billy sounded, his eyes were full of terror. He started to open his mouth again and Steve stopped him with his lips and their hands found each other in the dark.

“I’m s-so glad you came back,” Steve said minutes later as they jerked each other off and he gritted his teeth, trying to hold off. The sensation of Billy’s hand on his cock made him see stars. “I’m so glad, I’m so glad…I’m so... _Billy_...”

He whispered it over and over until he spilled over Billy’s fingers and they kissed again.

* * *

“Billy?” Steve said the word before he opened his eyes. 

His mind had crept toward wakefulness and then the memory of everything Billy had said and everything they did together tugged him abruptly into the morning. 

But Billy was gone.

Steve sat up with a start and immediately wondered if he’d dreamed it all. Except that he could still smell Billy in the bed. Steve rolled out of bed and hugged himself as he padded downstairs. If Billy regretted it all, if he’d taken off after confessing his love, Steve was going to need coffee before facing it. One cup and then breakfast. He’d never been able to stomach a breakfast right out of bed.

_Billy was gone._

Nancy had introduced Steve to coffee. He’d started drinking it because she did and because it seemed so adult. Now he could hardly string a thought together before his morning’s first cup. 

_Billy was gone._

He was so groggy as he poured water and scooped grinds into his parents’ Mr. Coffee that he didn’t notice the box of Lucky Charms still sitting on the counter.

_Billy was gone, right? Of course he was. Everybody left him._

“Aaaah.” Steve finally took a sip of his coffee a few minutes later (half and half, three sugars) and hearing a faint murmur from the living room, he padded out with his bed head and pajama pants still sticky with cum.

Billy Hargrove was on his couch.

Billy Hargrove was sitting criss-cross applesauce on his couch in his Black Sabbath shirt and pajama pants eating a bowl of Lucky Charms and giggling at Bugs Bunny.

It was like spotting a unicorn in the woods.

Steve was almost afraid that if he made a sound, Billy might disappear.

Billy looked up at him and winked, “Mornin’.”

Just that made Steve blush. He sat next to Billy and sipped his coffee and managed to say, “Thought maybe you left.”

“Did you want me to leave?” Billy said.

“No! No no. No, stay,” Steve said quickly. “Please, stay.” 

Billy sat back on the couch and Steve leaned his head on Billy’s shoulder. He looked down and saw four bare feet propped up on his mother’s coffee table. 

“I have the day off,” Billy said softly. He looked at Steve and raised an eyebrow.

Steve drained half his cup of coffee, set it on the table. He lunged to wrap his arms around Billy who yelped and nearly spilled his cereal just as an anvil fell on Wile E. Coyote’s head.

“Then I guess I’m calling in sick,” Steve said, and kissed his neck. “Too bad.”

He closed his eyes and heard the wonder in Billy’s voice and felt a hand gently pet his hair. “Yeah. Too bad.”


End file.
